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LCHorn

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  1. Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein both pimp that book and Neil Postman’s ā€œAmusing Ourselves to Deathā€ more than any others. Brooks spends the first part grounding this and I don’t think it’s accidental he starts with the Greeks rather than early Christians. He’s reaching for a morality than transcends specific cultures or generations. As far as your gentle needling about Brooks, I get it-I feel like 50% of his writing could have ā€œWas I an idiot for being a conservative?ā€ as a thesis.
  2. Putting this here because it addresses the current moral turpitude and I can't recall if we discussed it in July when it was published: From David Brooks (yes, I like to mock him, too) in The Atlantic "Why Do So Many People Think Trump is Good?" TL: DR--in an effort to promote personal freedoms, the modern American society has abandoned the sense of responsibility that its predecessors felt toward their community. This abandonment leaves individuals morally adrift and politics and (note, this is my addition) technology have failed to replace it in a way that settles that long-standing tension (between individual and community). This might not be the best thread to continue a discussion on it, but I've been pondering the failure of Team Democrat in light of the ongoing post-election autopsy (Crooked Media just had an event in DC and a panel of Hasan Piker, Jessica Tarlov, Tim Miller, and Simone Sanders Townsend and they couldn't move on from talking about this). Is it candidate, communication strategy, policy, etc., that accounts for the voters moving to Trump? (or, my pet theory, that every election now is a change election)? Anyway, I think the path forward, touched on by Brooks, is that the Democrats need to be building communities, i.e., organizing activities that aren't purely political on an ongoing basis. Run clubs, meet and greets, movies in the park, soup kitches, dances, concerts, T-ball leagues, etc. Spend all that fundraising money that otherwise is going to 30 min TV ads or Zuckerberg on reminding Americans that there is something more important that ties us together than an election every two years. The GOP already took advantage of alt-media podcasts, the "Come for the jokes, stay for the politics" or Rogan or whoever. The Democrats shouldn't be trying to mimic that and create it's own media ecosystem, it needs to think bigger.
  3. My presumption is there would be very little demand because they would have an upfront sticker price a good bit higher than a non-portable mortgage due to risk for investors on the secondary market.
  4. Am I wrong in thinking this show was cool in season 1-2? I made it through episode 2 and it’s like the writers have decided that viewers are really only interested in side plots. And besides that, it’s really fucking confusing (which reminds me of the the first game, come to think of it). Also, every time someone says Vilgefortz take a drink. I share your confusion about this.
  5. Hopefully this is the crucible from which a new/old Christianity emerges; one in which a return to the actual, radical message of Christ is not a label but a statement of purpose for believers and aspiring believers. Btw, it’s not purely following Jonathan Haidt’s timeline, but that also mirrors the popularization of the smart phone. I think there’s a huge emptiness with modern life, exacerbated by technology and social media, that a post-Enlightenment/pre-Evangelical version of Christianity could help fill.
  6. That's where I'm at--Castle isn't nearly so complimentary to the current Rockets but he's probably a good bet for a 1b player on a really good team at his peak. If Sheppard had been drafted in a non-lottery pick he'd be the talk of the league.
  7. Maybe not, but it's got to be enticing to a jackal like Ted Cruz to finally have a small chance at revenge.
  8. I haven't, but I've been following along the USMC subreddit comments. I am glad that it doesn't appear to be overly concerned with boot camp because that's been done to death and Marines telling boot camp stories are annoying. Everyone appears to be intrigued by the number of mustaches, that some of the Marine inherent gayness* is on display, and that some of the officers were openly critical of operations in a way that was surprising. *this is the least known element of USMC service and the most talked about in veteran communities, particularly as an artifact of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." A common rhetorical question is "why are politicians so concerned about gay Marines when everyone in the Corps is a little gay?"
  9. I'm sure I wrote as much up thread, but that's where I landed (or predicted once it all gets settled). Perhaps I'm just attracted to the clarity, but if I'm running a camp and 27 children die under my roof, regardless of the reason, I shouldn't be allowed to continue to operate. I also don't think the construction of dams along the Guadalupe, FEMA flood maps, once in a generation rainfall, or general Kerr County idiocy excuses that bottom line that the camp has to take responsibility.
  10. To be fair, they aren’t getting that type of paycheck, either. It’ll be interesting to see how NIL distribution starts to adapt to the new environment. It might be that depth charts start to be a real deterrent because sitting a year effectively delays that ā€œsecond contractā€, to steal from NFL jargon.
  11. I'm stealing this from Tim Miller, but I think the trans shit only plays when it's deployed against the Dems when they are in power. I think if they try to shift the conversation back toward cultural issues it's only helping the Dems in the 2016 midterms. "The GOP wants to talk about high school sports, I'm here to talk about jobs, health care costs and groceries. You know, the things that actually impact you." Walgreens might be the one business I patronize in which the staff look the most miserable, in particular the pharmacist who probably thought this would be a good, safe career choice 20 years ago.
  12. Seconded, I think this is largely where to place the playing time blame.
  13. I drove down to Oak Hill last year after Harley’s closed and I recall thinking they were really expensive. I think it ended up like $2 a stick.
  14. Trying to read tea leaves here, but perhaps this is an indication that there’s some not obvious attrition expected in the WR room.
  15. It was window-dressing a justification and the one thing they (Dem Senators) could agree on. Unfortunately, my preferred issue (corruption) doesn't have the same purchase with independent voters as they have abandoned all virtue in search of cheap eggs and beef. They also cannot de-escalate quietly given this was designed to grab attention in the first place, so it's hard to envision a realistic scenario in which many on the left aren't upset with the outcome (i.e., if we imagine the shut-down continues past Thanksgiving and the result is the GOP abandons the filibuster to pass the CR, does that change the sense among Dem voters that the shut-down was worth it?). I would prefer that result, but I don't think it lessons criticism by much.
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